Follow the crazy adventures of an Alabama cyclist taking on the Race Across America (again) in 2017.

Alabama State Time Trial Championships

Well, I guess my season isn’t quite over yet! Today, I won the Pro/1/2 division of the Alabama State Time Trial. The victory should have gone to Mike Olheiser who had already caught and passed me, but he had a flat tire and had to turn around. I was 3 seconds off of the fastest time of the day, which was put in by a strong Cat 3 rider Peter Dudle (Competitive Velo). I opted to do the race Eddy Merckx style with no aero equipment because I couldn’t get my clip-ons mounted on my handlebars last night. Still, even without any aero equipment, I was able to put in the second fastest time of the day out of all categories missing Peter’s time by just 3 seconds!

The course was challenging as it rolled constantly across the terrain, with one larger hill being the namesake of the course “Firetower Hill”. Since this was an out/back course, you got to see every hill twice — including Firetower because the turnaround was a couple miles past the bottom after you descended on the funnest part of the course. Check out my topocreator maps below:

No heartrate data to post because I forgot not only my new iBike power meter but also my Garmin in the frenzy to get out the door this morning after a late night working. I got a good warm-up pre-riding most of the course. I started out fast, but I knew that the best thing I could do was try not to blow up on the early hills. That stayed my strategy pretty much throughout, and I was very happy with my time.

Alan Laytham was out on the course taking pictures, and he snagged this one of me on the descent off of Firetower Hill a couple miles before the turnaround.